Co-hosted by Magpie co-founder Simon Anthony, we now have Cracking the Cryptic: a YouTube channel of real-time solves. Now, your instinctive response might be along these lines: Why in the name of all that is good and holy should you suggest that I spend half an hour failing to complete a puzzle, then watch some übermensch knock off the same thing in eight minutes?

That is, I admit, an undeniable feature of Cracking the Cryptic. Here’s a breezy remark from a recent Goodliffe voiceover:

My dreams of our nation gathering for a primetime BBC show, Strictly Come Solving, remain faint; in the meantime we have a dedicated narrowcast, which I hope becomes much broader. The channel’s puzzle series of choice is, appropriately, the steady-as-she-goes Times, which gremlins have recently prevented me from solving myself – so I have settled for solving by proxy, trying – and merrily failing – to match the masters.